


Thantophobia

by orphan_account



Series: The Telepath's Immortal [17]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternative Universe - Telepathy, Angst, Episode: s01e12 Captain Jack Harkness, F/M, Implied Manslaughter, M/M, Meditation, Multi, Sprinkle of fluff, alternative universe, pre-polyamory, referenced character death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 09:35:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12702171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ianto had an innate fear of losing the people that he loved.His sister was dead. His mother had hurdled back into his life. Gwen wasn't the person she had first appeared to be.And now, Jack and Toshiko had been dragged back to the height of the Blitz.Ianto was losing the people that he loved.





	Thantophobia

**Author's Note:**

> this first chapter was meant to be much longer, oh well
> 
> it was also meant to be out yesterday, oh well
> 
> it was also meant to be super fluffy and nice, OH WELL
> 
> (also, i'm lowkey so tired that whenever i post this now i can't be bothered to go through on rich text to put in all the italics and dividers and shit so i just post in html, isn't that sad)
> 
> (i also don't think i've ever proof read anything from this series, what am i doing with my life)

The Hub was quiet when David, Ianto and Annowre returned there, but Ianto could sense his Linkmates in the bowels of Torchwood as he flicked open the door leading down from the Tourist Office. Despite himself and his company, he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

“These people make you that happy?” his mother asked, falling into step beside him. Their synchronicity was outstanding and also aggravating. David, up ahead of them, stiffened as he walked but didn’t say a word out loud. 

“Happier than you ever made me,” Ianto said, malice tight in his throat. Annowre bristled at his words, slowly her steps so that she drifted behind Ianto and David. The Archivist would have been wary of her running off as they made their way down the stairs to the Hub, but there was nowhere to go. 

‘You needn’t be so cruel,’ David said over their Link, his acceptance and his disappointment in his friend’s actions blatant. ‘She’s here to help us, remember? I know she’s done wrong in the past, but she’s your mother, Ianto.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ianto snarled through his telepathy, knowing that Annowre could pick up on the resentment in his mind given how powerful of a psychic she was. ‘She’s hurt me and she hurt Rhiannon. I want her out of her as soon as she’s done with helping us find the rogue and strengthening our minds.’

‘And what about when she has to help Jack strengthen his mental defences? You’re a jealous little shit at the best of times, I know for a fact that you won’t want her in your boyfriend’s mind.’ Ianto dipped out of David’s mind and paused in his descent down the stairs. 

“Annowre,” Ianto began, ignoring his mother’s surprise at actually being addressed. “I wasn’t sure over the past few weeks, but did you notice a change in the energy when we passed these few stairs? Perhaps if this rogue is just manipulating our minds, but our environment?”

Annowre was silent for a moment as she mulled it over, unsure of herself. “I can certainly check into it..” she muttered finally, brushing past Ianto to follow after a gradually slowing David. Behind her back, Ianto glanced upwards, sighing sharply. Trust his mother to spit out an answer that wasn’t actually an answer.

The cog door felt deafening when Ianto inputted his code to open it; he hadn’t heard it so long and it was almost pleasing to him. It sounded like coming home. 

The first sight he was met with was Alyssa, her hair bright blue now and her eyes gleaming with excitement. After only a second of her seeing David, she was throwing herself at her friend, giggling as David grabbed her underneath her legs as she wrapped it around his middle. It ended in a mess of limbs, but Ianto found it desperately endearing.

Annowre was silent as she moved slowly into the main Hub, taking in her surroundings. Ianto had told Toshiko ahead of time that he was bringing his mother in (the techie was well aware of his indifference to her) and she was there by his side immediately. “Annowre,” she greeted, her accent a little heavy on the word. Annowre turned her owlish gaze on the Asian, arching a brow. “Come with me. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

Ianto smiled in gratitude, patting Tosh gently on the back as he passed her. She was silent but Ianto could tell she was waiting for a quiet moment to barrel him over with a hug, like Alyssa had (speaking of which, she seemed even happier to see David, sitting entwined - and lip-locked, which wasn’t surprising - on the sofa across the Hub). As Ianto strode across the room, he nodded once at Owen and barely glanced at Gwen, intent on finding Jack to smother him with affection. 

He was in his office, sitting nonchalantly in his desk chair, bent over some paperwork. The moment that Ianto softly closed the door behind him, Jack’s head snapped up, eyes frantically searching the space in front of him before he recognised who it was. 

“Ianto,” he breathed, on his feet in a split second. The Gifted stiffened ever so slightly at the swiftness Jack moved but the tenseness was gone by the time Jack was grabbing him by the hips and pulling him close. Naturally, Ianto’s hands flew to Jack’s shoulders, pressing more against his boyfriend as he tugged him forward and turned him tentatively to crowd Ianto against his desk. 

And then they were kissing, needy and frantic, in a way Ianto hadn’t been kissed before. Jack was everywhere, touch gentle despite the bite of his teeth against Ianto’s lips, and Ianto realised then, suddenly, that he would never have enough of his immortal. 

They parted for a second, panting hard and cheeks red and eyes sparkling. Breathing the same air, with their foreheads pressed together. Without words, or any degree of telepathy, Ianto communicated exactly what he wanted with a quirk of his lips and a quiet, ‘I want you’.

Jack’s lips were hot and heavy when he pressed them sharply against Ianto’s own again, the kiss chaste for a second before Ianto reached up and twisted his hands into the captain’s perfectly styled hair, frustrated at Jack’s lack of insistence. A ragged whine left his throat, swallowed up by Jack’s tongue as it pressed against Ianto’s. 

“Missed you,” Jack gasped, lips parting from Ianto’s own for a second to nip at the exposed flesh of his neck, sure that a pretty bruise would blossom there after some time. “So, so much,” he purred, cheeks flushed and eyes glistening. His next kiss was paired with a dirty roll of his hips against Ianto’s, turning their reunion into something more heady, something that caused Ianto’s blood to boil in his veins. 

“I guessed,” Ianto giggled, melting into a groan when Jack tipped his head back and ravished his mouth again, their encounter switching between sexual and gentle every other moment. The constant change of atmosphere was just so Jack that Ianto felt dizzy, as if his entire body was dissolving against Jack’s. The Gifted figured he was about to be fucked over his boyfriend’s desk, and was completely ready for it when the door snapped open.

“Jack-”

Of course. It just had to be Gwen. 

Jack sighed against Ianto’s lips and pulled away, his broad shoulders covering the majority of Ianto’s front in an oddly protective gesture as he turned to look at Gwen. His curiosity was drawn to the woman, ageing and grey, looming behind her. She seemed vaguely familiar but Jack couldn’t quite put his finger on who the hell she was. Judging by how stiff Ianto had gotten, fear tightening his grip on Jack’s arm, he knew who the woman was.

“Annowre was hoping to talk to you and the rest of the team. She needs you in the meeting room,” Gwen said, speaking to Jack only and practically ignoring Ianto. Annowre, which Jack assumed was the woman’s name, seemed mightily interested though in Ianto’s state of arousal, lips kiss-bitten and cheeks flushed. He was still confused as to who she was, but Gwen was already closing the door behind her before Jack could get a word in. 

“I...Ianto,” Jack began, turning to his lover, “who was she?”

Ianto was silent for a moment, refusing to meet Jack’s eyes. Frowning, the captain tilted his head up with his fingers, knuckles gently brushing over Ianto’s cheekbone. Finally, Ianto spoke, his voice wavering harshly. “She’s my mother. She confronted me when I was visiting Rhiannon’s grave, said she knew how to help us. I trusted her enough to bring her back here.”

Jack’s brow furrowed deeply at Ianto’s bitter tone, sensing a different version of events than what his boyfriend was explaining. Still, he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, nor was Jack in the right frame of mind because holy shit, Ianto’s mother was here. 

“Alright...okay,” Jack murmured, dipping his head down to meet Ianto’s lips once more. The Gifted seemed absent, his mouth unmoving and tense against Jack’s. Deciding not to push it, the immortal pulled away, gently encouraging Ianto away from his perch on his desk.

“Are you okay to come to the meeting?” Jack asked softly, not touching Ianto but staying at the edge of his vision, as if to ensure that Ianto knew he was still there. 

Ianto flinched away from Jack, his mouth twisting grimly. “Don’t patronise me. I’m perfectly capable of controlling my emotions, captain.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Jack said gruffly, catching Ianto’s arm as he tried to swiftly retreat from his boyfriend’s office. “I just figured you might want to readjust to life here before you’re catapulted into having to listen to someone you obviously don’t like very much.”

Immediately, at hearing Jack’s reassuring and yet slightly sharp tone, Ianto deflated, leaning back into Jack’s palm. His shoulders shuddered a little as Jack pulled away and they moved silently together away from his office.

They made their way in synchronicity to the meeting room above the Hub, Ianto silent and brooding and Jack huffing little breaths to show both his morbid curiosity at the hatred Ianto seemed to have at his mother and also his irritation at the fact his boyfriend had become so jagged at the edges after such a sweet reunion. 

“Come home with me tonight,” Ianto murmured, just before they strode into the meeting room. Jack could see Gwen and Annowre’s perked interest out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t wanna have any more secrets from you. Not about my mother, not about anything.”

There wasn’t a moment for Jack to reply, for Ianto stumbled into the meeting room, his eyes suddenly looking darker and face more drawn and tired. He didn’t meet his mother’s eyes. For a moment, Jack was aggravated that Ianto hadn’t forewarned him about Annowre but the feeling quickly faded as he took his seat. 

“Shall we begin?”

Annowre was silent for a second before she began to speak. “I’m originally from Demetae but I deserted it in the early 20s-”

“The 1920s?!” Gwen exclaimed, leaning forward in her chair to peer at Annowre. “You can’t be serious!” Annowre was unresponsive for a second, her eyes boring into Gwen’s, as if staring into the Welshwoman’s soul. Gwen pressed back to sit in her chair again, robotically, like she wasn’t even aware of her own movements. When Annowre started speaking again, no one interrupted, but Ianto stiffened, realising what she had done. 

“No. The 1720s,” she murmured, her voice going quiet and soft. “My speciality is the manipulation of human minds. I can twist the way that they think; I’m doing it to you now and only Ianto is realising. I’m making you calm and allowing you to retain the information only I want you to.” She relaxed and so did everyone else, shaking their heads a little to clear them. 

“I just needed to show you that I can affect more than one person at a time. I’m a powerful Gifted. So I know I can help you.”

Jack picked something nonchalantly off his sleeve, seeming perfectly comfortable with Annowre and Ianto both at his side, even though he knew the woman had just pried apart his mind. “What’s the plan of action, then? What do you want us to do?”

Besides Ianto, the Gifted could sense David and Alyssa bristling slightly, both knowing exactly who Annowre was to Ianto and what Jack was doing by putting control in her hands. Ianto would have liked to said it was simple enough to say Annowre was manipulating his team and swaying their minds like their rogue Gifted had, but it wasn’t like that. He hated his mother, he truly did, and he didn’t trust her, which really begged the question as to why he let Annowre into his home, into his life; Ianto was desperate, was the real answer, and he wanted his team to survive this rogue enough to bring his mother back into his life. 

“Joint meditation. Humans with Gifteds - the more you learn to join your minds, the calmer you’ll become and the stronger your mental walls will become. I think if we try to take away the effects this rogue has had on your minds first, we risk damaging your minds. But, if we value strengthening your walls first, we can allow you all to flourish properly.”

Owen hummed quietly under his breath in contemplation, obviously interested considering meditation regarded health, although mental health moreso which was not his speciality at all. He was about to comment, but Gwen cut over him. 

“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” she said proudly, ignoring Owen huffing besides her. “And I would love to meditate with you, Annowre.” The way she pronounced the Gifted’s name grated on Ianto’s nerves - or perhaps it was just because it was Gwen (and his mother).

“I’m sure Ianto wouldn’t want me to work with anybody else but you, Gwen,” Annowre commented, hinting at the hatred Ianto had of the idea of her dipping into the minds of his Linkmates, especially Jack. “I wouldn’t like to assume the other matches…”

“I’ll go with Toshiko. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better,” Alyssa said, bordering on flirtatious, despite the fact Ianto knew she’d literally just gotten together with David. The other Gifted didn’t seem too upset though, so Ianto wasn’t worried. He had guessed already that their relationship wouldn’t be a typical romance, just like his own with Jack. 

“I suppose that leaves me with Owen,” David smiled faintly at the other man, unfamiliar but friendly. Owen nodded at him respectively, glancing back towards Jack. It pleased Ianto to no end that he still was looking to Jack as his leader even just in the meeting, whilst everyone else, even Tosh, were struggling. 

‘I like that they assume we’ll be doing this together,’ Jack murmured, mind flitting against Ianto’s. Despite the strange and disconcerting atmosphere in the room, Ianto smiled.

‘Joint meditation within Gifted cultures is very intimate. It’s why men are often paired with men and women often paired with women. It only makes sense for us to be together in this’.

Jack didn’t react outwardly but Ianto knew that he was bursting with pleasure on the inside, so validated in his love - and, God, it was love - for Ianto even by the fact they were almost destined to be intimate. Ianto fed off his own brightness, eyes glowing with reciprocated emotion. 

“I can walk you through the procedure when I demonstrate on Gwen. I would recommend getting to know the person you’ll be meditating with, though. It makes it a lot easier to perform, in my experience. Is there anyplace private for me to speak with Gwen?” Annowre asked, her bones clicking loudly as she stood, making her way over to where Gwen was sitting. The Welshwoman beamed up at her.

“We can just go to my flat, if you want. It’ll be quiet this time of day.”

Jack grunted his approval - not that Gwen had bothered to ask - and stood too, turning his attention on the remaining team. Alyssa had sidled over to Toshiko not too long before, and the sweet Japanese woman seemed transfixed by her bright haired beauty who was explaining joint meditation to her in more detail. Ianto noticed passively how red Tosh’s cheeks were and how pleasant their Link was as she bathed in Alyssa’s affections; Alyssa would have noticed it too, and David, so the Archivist assumed that they’d already discussed Tosh’s affections for Alyssa and vice versa. 

“Will you four manage on your own? The Rift has been dormant for quite some time, but the alarms are on anyways so you could make your way home…”

Alyssa, who could clearly see Jack was desperate to take Ianto back home and reaffirm their Bond once more, smiled. “David and I have a cottage just on the outskirts of town. Would only take about twenty minutes to get there, if Tosh and Owen wanted to stop by. You know,” her tone dripped into something sultry and sexual and she turned to face Toshiko again, “to get to know us better.” 

“I wouldn’t mind at all,” Toshiko chuckled deliriously, ignoring Owen’s exasperated grumble. He muttered something about manning the fort if everyone was leaving and David grinned sheepishly, a clear tell that he was going to stay too. 

“Alright, I suppose that settles it. Call me if anything goes wrong, you two,” Jack said on his way out, Ianto following dutifully behind him (to stare at his ass). Toshiko, as lovestruck as she was, didn’t miss her opportunity to pull Ianto into an awkward hug as he passed her chair. And Ianto, as lovestruck as he was, didn’t miss his opportunity to hug back. 

“So, what does ‘getting to know you better’ mean for us?” Jack asked playfully as they clambered into Ianto’s car, eager to leave the Hub behind for the day. Ianto chuckled, pressing into the tiny kiss Jack offered.

“Well, I was hoping it meant we’d go home and you’d make love to me,” he murmured under his breath as they parted, his eyes dark and a little desperate. Jack couldn’t help himself but to dip back into the kiss, deepening it to something that made Ianto felt like he was on fire, but oh-so-special at the same time.

Despite the cursed four-letter word - ‘love’ - Jack responded in reciprocated glee. “I want that. I want you.”

Without taking his eyes away from Jack’s, Ianto started the car up, fingers glancing up to brush Jack’s cheek softly. “Oh, Jack. You’ve already got me.”

-

Ianto groaned as he fell back against Jack’s chest, aching after their vigorous round of lovemaking. His skin tingled where it was in contact with Jack’s and their Bond was strong, thrumming between them. Sated and with his limbs loose, Jack turned Ianto onto his side, stretching out into a more comfortable position. 

Purring, Ianto arched into the touch, revelling in the gentle intimacy, his dick softening between his thighs. “I should go get a flannel to clean us up,” he breathed, but curled closer to Jack anyways. The immortal grunted in protest, leaning over to grab something from Ianto’s nightstand. 

“Tissues,” he explained shortly, running the softness between Ianto’s legs and across his stomach where cum was drying. “Knew I wouldn’t want to get up when we were in bed together.”

“Mmm, how long have you been planning on shagging me? You seem quite prepared,” Ianto smiled, tugging his blanket over his and Jack’s naked forms. The warmth it provided was minimal so Ianto took it as an excuse to snuggle closer to his boyfriend, burrowing his head into the space between the pillow and Jack’s neck, lips grazing his skin, where three or four flushed bruises resided. 

“I’m always planning on shagging you,” Jack laughed, fingers carding through Ianto’s mess of sweat-slick hair. Something about the aftermath of sex was so deliciously romantic if it was done correctly and Jack enjoyed it immensely, perhaps even more so than the sex itself. “But in all seriousness, it was a coincidence. I didn’t even realise you were coming back today.”

“Neither did I. It’s why I never told you about Annowre - I wasn’t sure she was coming until she met us at the train station. And by then, everything was just a jumble of emotions anyways, so I never thought about calling you.”

Jack was still for a moment before he tugged Ianto impossibly closer. “Who is Annowre, Ianto? What did she do to hurt you?” 

It took a while for Ianto to begin speaking, uncertainty riddling his every movement, but when he started, the words just flew out of his mouth. There was a sense of disregard about Jack’s reactions to Ianto’s tale, but the captain wasn’t upset, registering that Ianto had waited years to finally tell someone what his mother had done. 

“My sister was sick with pneumonia. It was a little over five years ago that she died but she’d been battling it for almost two decades. Her magick was the only thing that sustained her,” Ianto opened, knowledge he’d already confided in Jack. Hearing it twice didn’t make it any less heartbreaking.

“My mother was in and out of our lives in our childhood. We were raised primarily by Branwen, the leader of Demetae - me for my Gift and Rhiannon because she was a skilled healer.” Ianto paused, laughing bitterly. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

Jack didn’t reply. He didn’t have to.

“I was ten the first time it happened. It was a bad day for Rhiannon, we’d used a massive amount of magick both to heal an elder. She was lying next to me in our tent and I was watching over her. Our mother came in - I barely recognised her, really, it had been so long since I had seen her. But...her Gift...it makes people trust her. Her magick resonates with practically everyone so it’s very easy for her to heal people’s minds. She worked as a psychologist amongst humans. S’why she was never with us.”

Ianto lost himself for a moment in the whorls of Jack’s fingers, absently playing with his fingers in an effort not to be swept away by his emotion. It didn’t quite work, tears prickling at the edges of his eyes. His Bond with Jack strained under the force of his poorly concealed despair.

“She knew that I was destined to be this powerful person, because of my Tint. She valued me, just like everyone else, above Rhiannon. And she knew that I’d used up so much magick that I was dying,” Ianto’s voice caught and then it grew thin and weak, eyes misting over as he was dragged into the memory. “My own mother taught me how to feed from Rhiannon’s magick. She was dying, Jack, and I stole from her the thing that was keeping her alive.”

Ianto’s sobs caught up with him and he wrapped his arms around himself, harsh, horrible sounds racking his body. Furrowing his brow with concern, Jack pulled him to his chest, his own tears pooling in the corners of his eyes and running down his cheeks.

“My sister ended up dying because Annowre needed me alive. Because she taught me to feed off her magick,” Ianto sobbed against Jack’s chest, scrabbling for a hold on his shoulders to somehow ground himself. He quieted after a few minutes, his tears drying quickly on his face and leaving behind silvery trails. “But every time I use my magick now, I know that it’s part of her that’s always keeping me alive. It’s the only upside I think I’ve ever found.”

In his mind, although it was disgusting to think, Jack didn’t believe he could hate Annowre - he didn’t believe he could even disagree with her actions. Not if she had kept Ianto alive; perhaps it was because he had made decisions just as tough in the past, but he would have done the same. Rhiannon, as much as Ianto obviously loved her, was dying anyways. And if Jack had been in Rhiannon’s position, he would have done anything to keep his beloved alive. 

Somehow, Ianto sensed what he was thinking. Maybe it was the strength in their Bond or maybe it was just because it was Ianto, but the Gifted knew exactly what Jack was contemplating and it sickened him to the core. 

Pushing away from Jack, Ianto gathered half the duvet in his hands to cover himself protectively, suddenly aware of how vulnerable he felt. “Get out,” the elemental hissed, steeling himself against the pleading gaze of his partner. 

“Ianto-”

“I said, get out. She practically murdered my sister, and what? You agree with her?” Ianto asked incredulously, shifting under Jack’s forlorn gaze. “I don’t want to see you anymore. I want you to leave.” With that, he turned on his side, hiding himself beneath the blanket, unable to watch as Jack slowly redressed, fumbling with the clothes he’d picked up from Ianto’s floor. 

Once he was done, he glanced towards the still mass on the bed, only the back of Ianto’s head visible. Jack didn’t reach out to touch Ianto, but the Gifted felt as if he had, shivering under his words. 

“Ianto...I don’t agree with her, not exactly. I just know that I would do anything to save you, too.”

“What, even kill the rest of the team?” Ianto asked furiously, his words cutting like daggers through Jack. The immortal went to say no, but then hesitated. Jack wanted so desperately to say that he probably would, that he was so damn selfish and so damn in love with Ianto that he would destroy the entire world if it would keep him safe, but he knew he didn’t have the right to confess that. To say that when Ianto was so upset with him. 

“I don’t know, Ianto,” he said instead, risking himself enough to lean over and press a kiss to his stubborn boyfriend’s forehead. “I’m sorry. I’ll ring one of the other’s up. See if they would switch who they’re meditating with.”

Ianto didn’t reply, nor did he flinch away from Jack’s soft touch. Disheartened, Jack pulled away and stood, straightening his clothes. The mask had come up again. 

“You can have a day off if you need it. It’s usually mandatory for those coming back from extended field duty. Just...call if there’s any emergency, yeah?”

Jack didn’t wait for an answer, striding purposefully over to Ianto’s bedroom door in an attempt to leave as swiftly as possible before he broke down. Ianto didn’t give him that small mercy. “You too, cariad.”

Swallowing thickly, Jack twisted the doorknob and departed. Thankfully, his tears didn’t begin until he was far away from Ianto’s home.


End file.
